Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/315

 the staff was a small one. Some of the appointments, like that of the Rev. Peter Rogers, the first of the regular chaplains, whose vagaries have already been referred to, were not happy. But on the other hand there were amongst these early clerical representatives men who were in every way a credit to their cloth. In this category deservedly may be included the Rev. Patrick Copeland, who went out to India a year or two after Rogers. He is described in a letter to the directors of the period by one of its principal agents in India as one "whose virtuous life suiting so well with his sound doctrine is a means of bringing men unto God." Not the least of Copeland's claims to a place in the early history of the English in the East is that he made the first Indian convert that the Anglican Church can claim. This was a Bengali youth whose acquaintance Copeland formed in the course of his travels. The lad was taken to England by his patron and publicly baptized at the Church of St. Dionis, Backchurch, Fenchurch Street, on December 22, 1616, in the name of Peter, to which, according to some accounts, King James added the surname of Pope. Subsequently the Indian Peter returned to his native land, to drop once more into obscurity. Copeland, whose later career was spent in the West Indies, died in the Bermudas.

The ordinary life of the Eastern factories ran on rather rigid lines. Usually the day commenced with prayers at 6 a.m. Afterwards was a light informal breakfast, analogous to the chota hazri, or "little breakfast" of the Anglo-Indian of to-day. At midday was the dinner, a substantial meal to which the members of the establishment sat down in the strict order of precedence, the chief agent and the members of his council at a top table, and